Slipping From The Edge
by SAR132-4
Summary: A spree shooting occurs at a local high school but things aren't as they appear as a young kid, pushed to the edge by bullying, holds a room of terrified teens hostage. Rated T for Teen, fiction number 400!
1. Chapter 1

School bells rang with a shrill report as students rushed into the empty school, lockers slammed and chatter filled the hallways. Teachers sat in classrooms as the first kids started to enter the class, more studious types opening books and working on homework that would be due the next week. Procrastinators rushed to the school's library to print out homework and essays due the first period.

The students in the rush of the school morning didn't notice the two kids dressed in dark clothing who were conversing in one of the emptier sections of the hallway. One of them had a nervous expression on his face as he talked quickly to the other teen.

"Look, I'm not sure about this," he whispered harshly, looking up now and then to look out for people walking down the hall, "It just doesn't seem right."

The other teen glared at him, "Too late to back down Nate, you want your revenge, right? You want that bastard to pay," he said aggressively, "Well here's your chance!"

"I just don't want other people getting hurt," Nate sighed as he rubbed his arms nervously and he shifted his weight.

The teen sneered, "These robots care nothing about us, let's make Harris and Klebold proud," he said solidly slapping Nate on the shoulder, "We're going to do this just as planned, we strike at lunch, make some noise and make the front page."

Nate nodded, "Yeah, alright, see you at lunch then," he said as the warning bell rang and he rushed to his class. He tried his best to get himself psyched for the plan, but he couldn't help shake the nagging feeling that this was going to turn out very bad.

* * *

It was Monday morning in the SRU and everyone was at work in the gym. Sam was lifting some weights, Jules was running on the treadmill, Greg commandeered the exercise bike. Ed was in a chin up contest with Wordy and Leah was on the bench press.

Spike suddenly walked into the room, Ed nodded, "Nice of you to join us today Constable Scarlatti," he said in a severe tone.

"Sorry, got caught up in traffic," Spike mumbled as he started his stretches, it was a lie and everyone could tell it.

Wordy finished his fifth set, "Everything okay Spike?"

Spike looked up at Wordy, "Yeah," he nodded, "Great," and with that he put his ear buds on and began working on the punching bag, Sam rose an eyebrow at the intensity of the punches. Everyone was more than a little confused at Spike's sudden shift in personality.

Last night Spike had been the wisecracking and geeky constable that Team One came to know and love. Today though, he seemed to have shifted a hundred and eighty degrees, his mood was darker and more brooding.

Greg hoped that whatever Spike was going through, it wouldn't ruin his concentration if they got called out and that it wasn't a permanent shift in mood. He also knew that if Spike didn't want to talk about it, he didn't want to be pressed on the issue.

The team worked out silently from then on, each with their own thoughts.

* * *

Nate walked along the hallways before third period, it was almost time for their plan to take place, most people would be in the hallways between third and fourth period. It would be, as his partner, Jeremy, explained, the perfect situation for total chaos.

He started sweating a bit, the bullet proof vest he wore under his clothes felt heavier and more oppressive all of the sudden. Would he be able to accomplish his goal?

As he walked into his third period class, his fists clenched, he had to. It was the only way to avenge his friend.

"Nate," a girl called from the other side of the class, she joined him, "You get the problems last night?"

"Yeah, thanks Chris, made a lot more sense once you explained it," he smiled a little and went to his seat.

She shrugged, "No problem," she replied and went back to her seat with a shy smile.

Nate took a deep breath and immersed himself in the math class, he had to be ready for what was going to come next, he had to.

* * *

Jeremy stood in the bathroom with Nate shortly before third period ended, they went over the plan one more time, "Alright," Jeremy said as he held out a map of the school, "As soon as we step out, you fire the shotgun into the air and I'll fire into the crowd," he said, "Then I'll provide a distraction as you go on your little mission."

"Harris and Klebold?" Nate asked nervously with a slight smile on his face, he was trying to get ready for what they were about to do.

Jeremy nodded and grinned, "Harris and Klebold."

Nate tucked the pistol into his waist band and shrugged on his coat, he held the shotgun and nodded at Jeremy who had tucked his pistol into his waist band and held the automatic at the ready. The bell for fourth period rung and the hallways filled again.

* * *

"Spike," a voice called out over the din of loud Italian rock.

Spike turned to see Ed standing there with his arms crossed, the Italian paused the song and pulled his ear buds out, "Yeah Ed?"

"If you don't want to tell me what's going on, that's fine," Ed said seriously, "but if this is going to affect how you work today . . ."

"I'm fine," Spike answered as he punched the bag one last time, "just a personal thing, I'll be fine."

Ed patted Spike on the back, "Alright, well if you need some time off," he said in an uncharacteristically nice move.

Spike shook his head, "I'll be fine Ed," he said before walking off to run on the treadmill that Jules had vacated.

The female negotiator walked over to the bench press and began lifting the weight, Sam was on the stationary bike right next to her. "What's going on with Spike?" he asked out loud, just loud enough for Jules to hear.

"Not sure," Jules replied as she finished a rep, "But he'll probably open up."

* * *

Chris walked to her science class, which was right across the hallway, her teacher greeted her at the door and Chris walked to her seat. Her teacher was pregnant by four months and it was showing, she smiled at Chris, "You got the lab questions right again, I'm impressed Christine."

Chris shrugged, "I guess it just comes easy to me Mrs. Gant," she replied as the students filed in, one of them was a senior wearing a sports jersey, he sneered at the teacher and took his seat.

The teacher gave him the stink eye when he wasn't looking and then turned to write the warm up on the board.

A few more students walked in when suddenly Chris heard loud cracking sounds in the hallway and students screaming.

She was the closest one to the door so she ran up to it and slammed it shut, Mrs. Gant tossed her the keys and Chris locked the door, suddenly the loud report of a shot gun filled the class, the window in the door broke and Chris felt a sharp pain in her side.

"Christine!" she heard Mrs. Gant call as Chris dropped to the floor and got out of the way of the door. The teen looked down and saw an expanding stain of red on her shirt, she gripped her side and tried to control her breathing.

A hand reached through the broken window and the tattered posters that covered what was left of it. The hand reached down and opened the door, revealing Nate with a shotgun and a look of pure hatred in his eyes, he slammed the door shut and yelled, "No one in this room moves!"

Everyone looked up in fear at Nate, Chris leaned heavily on the filing cabinets as she asked in a surprised voice, "Nate?"

Nate glanced down for one second before pointing his gun at the senior, "Nobody move," he said again, "Or he dies."

* * *

'_For a large student body, they sure clear out fast,'_ Jeremy thought as he walked the empty hallways. There were some blood stains on the floor and several bodies, he glanced down at his gun, soon it would be time that he joined them.

He shifted his automatic to the other hand and made his way to the library.

**Number 400 for the Flashpoint fanfiction archive! *confetti and balloons drop from ceiling*. **

**Well, this is based off the "Perfect Storm", the references to "Harris and Klebold" are referring to the Columbine shooters. I do not own Flashpoint and I don't condone school shootings. **


	2. Chapter 2

**It's getting slower paced now, sorry for the quick pace of last chapter. First chapter revisions should be up soon, I write to improve :). Anyway, happy December and non-denominational winter holidays everyone. I have the tree up and ready to receive presents, and I have a shiny new manuscript, thanks to NaNoWriMo! **

The classmates cowered in terror as Nate waved the shot gun around, he pointed it at a gawky kid, "Put the desk in front of the door," he said as he quickly positioned himself so he was next to the windows in the back of the room, he quickly closed the blinds on all of them.

The sound of a desk scraping against the floor was the only thing that broke the silence as the student quickly pushed it against the door and sat back down in his seat. He was shaking.

The fear in the room was almost tangible, no one dared to speak as Nate began to pace agitatedly around the room, his heart and thoughts racing. His plan had worked, he was in the room with his torturer, the scum that had caused worse pain to him than death. Now it was the time to kill the face that sneered at him every time he looked at it, now was the time. He clenched the gun in his hands, it would just take one shot to end it all, but he couldn't go through with it.

But he couldn't just leave either, the cops would shoot him before he left the building.

So Nate was left with the only option he had left, he'd stay in the room with all of his hostages, stay hidden until he was ready to kill the scum, or ready to die.

"Nate," he heard a voice speak up, there was fear in it, but also confusion. The gun wielding student turned to face the teen who was currently on the floor, clutching her side.

Christine was glad that the shot only grazed her, it looked a lot worse than how she felt, she looked up at Nate, wondering why he was doing this, "Nate," she said again, "Why?"

It was safe to say she was confused as he began pacing the room again, once in a while stopping by the window and checking outside to see if the cops had shown up again. Nate was a gentle kid, at least that's what everyone thought. He was the quiet type, not exactly the best at school or athletics, he would have rather spent time in front of a game controller, playing the latest Halo game or some fantasy RPG.

"Just shut up," Nate growled in frustration as he took a step forward and aimed his gun at her, "Be quiet," he said, Christine obliged and stayed silent as he lowered the gun and walked to the window once more.

* * *

Peter's voice blared over the alarms ringing in the SRU headquarters, punctuating the loud siren with the message, "Team One, gear up. Hot Call, shots fired Earl Haig Secondary School, 100 Princess Avenue, North York."

The team gathered in the gym burst into action, weights were replaced with SMG's and the standard issued glock, workout clothes were replaced with the SRU uniform, complete with the Kevlar vest. Everyone worked quickly and almost quietly, steeling themselves for what would lay ahead.

"We may have a spree shooter," Greg said as he entered the large command truck that followed the two Suburbans out of the garage, Wordy was at the wheel, driving towards their destination, "We need to get this contained and contain it fast."

"Copy that Boss," Ed said into his radio from the passenger's seat of another truck, Leah was driving, "Spike, pull up the floor plans."

Spike nodded, "Copy," he said as he cleared his mind of any distractions, he sat in the backseat of the truck carrying Sam and Jules. His fingers flew over the laptop's keyboard as he started pulling up the necessary information.

"Pete, is there any ID on our shooters?" Greg asked as they flew down the highway, the sirens screaming as the traffic parted to let the caravan through.

Meanwhile, Pete sat at the headquarters, multitasking as he listened to the 911 calls and fed the team information, "No," he said.

Greg's mind was racing, his profiling skills kicked in as he thought of the unidentified shooter, given that this was a spree killing, it was very likely that the shooter was a male, white and, given that this was in a school, bullied. He'd need to pull up records on the students, a task that could only be accomplished at the school unfortunately.

Thankfully, they reached the scene within moments, where several emergency vehicles were already parked, police cars formed a perimeter around the campus, officers securing the scene with bright yellow tape and looking up at the large glass windows every few minutes as if expecting to see the shooter.

Paramedics set up triage centers within the perimeter, students who managed to escape were being treated for minor wounds while the more injured were being carted away in gurneys. They all had the same look of disbelief and fear on their faces. Several students were crying, friends hugging each other as they found out that they had survived.

Each member of the SRU took a deep breath before leaving their SUVs to enter the scene that unfolded in front of them. Already news crews and distraught parents from all over Toronto were pulling up, only to be stopped by the perimeter of police men. Cameras and microphones were whipped out as reporters stood in front of the school, filling in their respective stations about the situation that was unfolding.

As Greg exited the mobile command, he was approached by the principal who was being escorted by a police officer, "Sir," the officer said, "This is Principal Walker," he said as he motioned to a rather chubby man in a dark suit.

"We've never had such a blatant act of violence performed on our premises before," Principal Walker said as he shook his head in disbelief, "He has to be stopped."

Greg assured the principal, "We will stop him," he said, "Do you know anything about the shooter? Did anyone get an ID?"

"Several of our students saw two men running from where the shots were fired," the principal said as they walked over to the triage site, "There they are," he said as he motioned to the three students who sat in folding chairs.

"Boss?" Ed asked as he walked up to Greg, "We've got to move now, contain the situation before anyone else gets hurt," he said as they both turned to look at the school.

Greg nodded but didn't move, the situation looked like a cut and dry spree shooter, but there seemed to be something more to the situation than the initial reports were letting on, "Alright," he said, "Keep Spike out here, I need him in the truck."

Ed opened his mouth as if to protest, but just nodded and left, motioning for the team to join him as they planned to enter the school. Spike sent the team blueprints of the entire building, he was going through security cameras, hoping to see the gunman, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Greg sat down with the three students, "Hey, my name's Sergeant Greg Parker, I heard you saw the gunman."

"You bet I did," a student with gauze wound tightly around his head, blood seeped from the wound where a bullet had grazed him, "He was crazy," the student said with a nod of his head, "He had this rifle, looked kind of like the carbines they use on Counter Strike . . . "

Greg nodded a little before asking, "Did you recognize him?"

The student's face expressed a moment of thought as he tried to remember the student's name, "He was in my science class last year, before I decided music was my path . . ." he paused, "Might have been Joey? I'm sorry sir, I don't really remember."

"Jeremy," one of the other students spoke up, a kid with his arm in a sling, "Jeremy Hauser," he added, "He's in my tech Ed class."

This was the break Greg had been waiting for, he stood up and left, "Spike, get me all you can on Jeremy Hauser, he's a student at the school," he said as he moved to leave the triage.

"Sarge," Spike said, his voice rising in overt surprise, "You've got to see this," he said as the Sergeant jogged over to the vehicle.

Spike had found the security tapes of the shooting, there was one student with an automatic, firing at the ceiling, then into the crowd of terrified students. Another student with what appeared to be a shotgun ran off into the crowd, "He's running towards the Math and Science wing," Spike said as he looked at the map of the school.

"Team one, be advised there is another subject," Greg said into his radio, the message traveling over the airwaves to Team One, who were currently gathered around the entrance, ready to enter the building.

Ed looked to his team and nodded, "Copy that Sarge," he said as he opened the door to the school, the officers moving in quickly and quietly.

The school was silent, the students left inside were either hiding in their classroom as per lockdown protocol or they were caught by the gunman. Spree shooters were always hard to handle, but when kids were involved, it always made it a lot worse.

The team moved through the atrium quietly, the only sound was their combat boots clunking softly on the floor as they made their way towards ground zero, regular officers moved in behind them, knocking on doors and clearing out the rest of the students.

Soon they reached ground zero, where the initial shots had been fired, there were pools of blood on the floor, shoe prints pointed towards the exits or other classes were put in sharp relief against the white linoleum. This was a lot different from the events in the past winter, when a kid had gone on a mission of revenge against the classmates who had bullied him. This kid had wanted to kill, to go down in a blaze of glory. And it didn't matter who he took down with him.

There were bodies on the floor, Wordy knelt down next to one of them as the team took up formation around him. He pressed two fingers to the person's neck, hoping to feel a pulse, but there was none.

The father shook his head at the rest of his team, feeling a pang in his heart for the kid and his family. It could have been one of his daughters or Ed's son lying on that floor, the cop steeled himself as he stood up and walked with the rest of his team further into the school. They came across another body, this time Leah knelt down to the teenage boy with a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

She felt for a pulse, and found one, "Spike, send in paramedics to the Humanities wing," she said as she quickly put on gloves and placed pressure on the teen's wound.

"Copy," Spike replied as he sent in a team to take the injured teen.

* * *

Jeremy was in the library by now, the room was dark and quiet. Yet he knew that there were students in the room, he could hear their breathing, their scared whispers as they heard him enter the room. He grinned as he stalked around, he had been invisible up to this day, now he was making himself known. He began humming an off key tune, systematically checking the aisles of books and under the tables for his prey, he finally found two teen girls huddling under a computer desk, they looked up fearfully at the gun wielding student.

"Samantha Anders, Jenny Henderson," Jeremy said with a devilish grin, "Two most popular girls in school, hanging out at the library, what a paradox."

"P-please don't do this," the girl on the right, Samantha, pleaded as she raised her hands like a subject under arrest.

Jeremy's smile didn't disappear as he raised the gun, "Well, let me ask you, do you recognize me now?"

"What?" the other girl, Jenny, asked incredulously, her eyes locked on the barrel of the weapon, "What are you talking about?"

This time, Jeremy's smile did disappear, and he glared at the two teens, '_Even with a gun pointed at them, they don't recognize me,_' he snarled, "It's a shame," he squeezed the trigger.

_Click_.

The two teens cowered as close as they could to the wooden sides of the underside of the desk, their eyes were squeezed shut. Jeremy looked in surprise at his rifle, the thing refused to fire no matter how many times he squeezed the trigger. Making a noise of distaste, he reached back for his pistol and . . .

"Raagghh!" a dark shape flew out of nowhere and tackled Jeremy.

Samantha and Jenny looked on in astonishment as one of the star hockey players of the school, Trevor, barreled Jeremy to the ground. Jeremy quickly found his way out of Trevor's grasp, he pulled out the gun and fired off two rounds.

_Bang. Bang._

Trevor's eyes widened as he collapsed, blood leaking out of the two bullet wounds in his stomach. Jenny was screaming unintelligibly as Samantha looked on in horror at her wounded classmate. And Jeremy glanced down apathetically at his victim as he turned and ran away to the next section of the school.

**Okay, that about wraps up Chapter 2 . . . sorry, this was kind of hard for me to write, and Junior year's really taking its toll on the system, I have yet to go to bed before 12 am. Holiday break's in a day though and I'm having a huge party to make up for the hellish nightmare my first two quarters have been. Got my PSAT scores back though, 191's not that shabby :). **

**Apologies for any grammatical errors within this chapter, Chapter 1 rewrite should be coming out by the end of this month/year. Happy Holidays! **


End file.
